Petricevic Porsche sells for $150K

The Porsche formerly owned by now bankrupt Bridgecorp boss Rod Petricevic. Photo/Campbell Live

Bankrupt Bridgecorp boss Rod Petricevic's Porsche sports car has been sold for $150,000.

The 2005 Porsche 911 was at the centre of a legal row last year after ownership of it was transferred to a family trust.

The transfer came three days after most of the Bridgecorp companies were placed in receivership, owing 14,500 investors $460 million.

Early last year the car was seized by court bailiffs and late last year ordered to be sold.

The proceeds of the $150,000 sale had been "paid out", said lawyer Murray Tingey who acted for Bridgecorp receiver, PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The receiver seized the car to recover $576,100 plus interest after the company paid a personal tax bill for Petricevic in 2006.

Petricevic and other executive directors are facing criminal charges over the Bridgecorp collapse.

They also say they are pursuing more legal action against Bridgecorp's directors and against other parties.

PricewaterhouseCoopers have just made their six-monthly report on Bridgecorp and said they are not willing to put a number on how much investors may get back.

They had previously estimated the final payout will be between 13c and 44c in the dollar.

And they say: "The ongoing deterioration in the economic environment has and will continue to impact negatively upon both the options available and the level of realisations achieved.

"As a consequence ... it is extremely difficult to estimate the likely returns from remaining assets with any certainty."

In the case of most of its loans, Bridgecorp was not the first-ranking mortgagee. Out of $254 million worth of New Zealand loans just $19.5 million had been recovered to date.

Of the remaining New Zealand loans, the receivers were relying on pursuing guarantors or insurance claims, or on extended payment plans agreed before the receivership. A number of the properties had yet to be completed before they could be sold, they said.

Returns from $32.9 million worth of Australian loans were likely to be minimal.

In the case of $106.6 million that was lent on the Momi development in Fiji, the receivers were working with the developer and financiers to try to secure funding to complete the project.

Another $50.5 million in loans were for overseas hotels, but these were being sold by other mortgagees and the receivers were waiting for the details.

There was $87.5 million owed by other entities in the Bridgecorp group. Most of the New Zealand entities had no assets, and PWC was working with the liquidators of the parent company, Bridgecorp Holdings, to see if anything could be recovered from the Australian entities.

Criminal charges have been laid against Bridgecorp's five directors - former boss Rod Petricevic, chairman Bruce Davidson, Rob Roest, Gary Urwin and Peter Steigrad. They are due to reappear in the Auckland District Court next month.

The receivers said they continued to "actively pursue a number of other potential actions against certain of Bridgecorp's directors and other
parties in respect of their conduct prior to receivership".


MARIA SLADE/NZPA